COPYRIGHTED 1918 

by 

THE NORTH WESTCHESTER PUBLISHING CO. 



All Rights Reserved 



SEP -4 1918 



8^ 



0?^ 






To them that dreamed of wings, 

and to them, that have achieved 

wings, these lines are humhly 

inscribed 



The Dream of Wings 



THE SPEAKERS 

JOHN BULL 
UNCLE SAM 
ICARUS 

LEONARDO da VINCI 
DARIUS GREEN 
WILBUR WRIGHT 

THE LOST LAFAYETTE FLYERS 

Victor Chapman 
Norman Prince 
Kniffin RockweU 

THE SPIRIT OF THE NORDIC RACE 



THE DREAM OF WINGS 



At the left of the stage {from the audience') is discovered the tradi- 
tional figure of John Bull against a shadowy outline of the Houses 
of Parliament 

To the right stands Uncle 8am. Behind him is the suggestion of the 
Washington Capitol. Between him and John Bull is an irregular 
patch of blue. 

Uncle Sam 

Morning, John. 

John Bull 

Morning, Sam. 

Uncle Sam 

How're things going? 

John Bull 

Oh, they're going — like the tail of a comet. Better ask 
when they'll stop. 

Uncle Sam 

Not when, John — where. 

John Bull 

Aye: where, {raises his waistcoat significantly) 

Uncle Sam {sympathetic) 
Rations short? 

John Bull {defiantly) 
Oh, I'm not at the last hole in my belt, yet. 

3 



Uncle Sam 

Never while I have a bushel of wheat or a piece of bacon. 

John Bnll 

Thankee Sam, that's good of you. {slight pause) You know, 
I haven't always played cricket with you. 

Uncle Sam 

Forget it, John. I guess there have been times when I 
rocked the boat. 

John Bull 
Your tars fight mine whenever they're in port together but 
if another lot of sailors or the natives mix in our fellows gei 
together to lick the skins off 'em. 
Uncle Sam 
Sure: The boys will always scrap: It's the way they 
amuse themselves. But it's better fun fighting another gang 
than each other. 

What's needed? (takes out note hook) 

John Bull 
We need quite a lot of stuff and — er — I'm a little short of 
cash just now — but my note is good. 
Uncle Sam 
Good as gold What first? 

John Bull {passionately) 
Everything. We're fighting slave labor and short trans- 
portation, with the work of free men and oversea carriage. 

Uncle Sam 

But we are freemen, so we must win — We can not lose. 
Rome fell because of slaves — {stops) 

John Bull {aivkwardly) 
That's past and forgotten. 



Uncle Sam (with deep emotion) 
It can never be forgotten. Lincoln struck the chains from 
my wrists, not the negro's, but the scar still burns for my 
sins, not against the black race, but my own. 
John Bull 
Our race, Sam. We have the faults of our qualities but 
we've got to keep the family together. Where we live is 
nothing. It's the blood that counts. Don't let outsiders say 
we're not related just because we've had a tiff or two. 
Uncle Sam {ichimsicaUy) 
Relations need a lot of room for their elbows. 

John Bull 
Well, we've got the room, haven't we? And we'd both bet- 
ter keep it for our great grand children and put up a sign: 
"No trespassing." 

Uncle Sam 

You've said it, John! Look at our boundary line — 3000 
miles and not a fence post on it. Why? Because we under- 
stand each other, — as men and as kindred. 

This war has given us some jolts, — but by gosh, we needed 
'em! And it's showed our breed true to form. 

John Bull 

You know people said we were in this war for profit — I 
mean the money there was in it. ( Uncle Sam nods) 
Vv^hat's your bill to date, Sam? 

Uncle Sam 



John Bull 

Mine is 

Uncle Sam {unth a long whistle) 
That's not money— It's an abstraction. 



John Bull 

I gave up thinking in terms of money long ago. 

Uncle Sam 
I'm getting there. There was never a doubt of what the old 
set thought, but some of the new hands started yelping their 
ideas — from the noise they made you'd think they owned the 
shop. I kicked out some, and warned the others. I guess 
there won't be any serious trouble at the works from out- 
siders after this. John, let's not go back to the money stan- 
dard: Getting things we don't need and worrying to look 
after them — let's travel light and enjoy ourselves. 
John Bull 
We'll have a new standard, Sam: A measure for the soul- 
stuff of our people. 

Uncle Sam 
We've always had it, John. We just forgot it for a spell 
making money. 

John Bull 
What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul? 

Uncle Sam 
Owning the world is a figure of speech, — like our war bills. 
What counts is the point of view, — and living up to it as well 
as we can, of course: Seeing the stars even with our feet in 

the mud and on our hands Let's get on with the list. 

What comes first? 

John Bnll 
Ships! Ships! Ships! Ships for the sea! Ships for under 
the sea! Ships for the air — we must command the sea and 
air. 

Uncle Sam 

Sure. 

6 



John Bnll 

I've got my ships standardized and my boys understand 
them and the water. 

My place isn't big enough for all the aeroplanes we need, — 
Can't you take the air for your sphere of influence, Sam? 

Uncle Sam 

Why not? The swiftest ships command the sea. When our 
long-ships and their oarsmen ruled the waves I dreamed of 
wings and the dream came true! My clippers were more 
sea-birds than ships, and my lads were proud to sail on them 
before the mast for the speed was in the way they handled the 
sails. But when the speed was an engine they wouldn't shovel 
coal. Well, I don't blame them! Their great-grandsons can 
take service again and drive my navy and merchant air fleets! 
You keep the water, John! I'll take the air. Together there's 
nothing we can't do! I dreamed of wings— and I made the 
dream come true. 

Icarus (floating down) 
I, too, dreamed of wings. 

Leonardo da Vinci {entering) 
And I. 

Darius Green 

I couldn't make my contraption work — but I dreamed of 
flying. 

Wilbur Wright 

The vision must come before the actual. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

They are same my friend. 

Uncle Sam 

We call a crank, visionary, if we feel like being kind. 



Leonardo da Vinci 

A visionary may be a crank — or a seer, according to his 
perception ; if he sees the truth or is beglamored by a fantasy. 

John Bnll 

How can you tell which from t'other? 

Leonardo da Vinci 

True vision is ultimate perception. No matter how im- 
probable it is always in the nature of things. That is the 
proof of its truth. But fantasy, however plausible, is without 
the sphere of things possible and leads to nothing. 

John Bull 

Do you mean to say that it's in the nature of things for a 

man to fly? 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Just as natural as that he should cross the sea. 

John Bull 

But he had a ship for that. 

Leonardo da Vinci {indicating others) 
We dreamed of a ship for the air. Wilbur Wright reached 
the actual through the chance of living when he did, but we 
saw as true as he; just as the man who first hollowed a log 
had the potential vision of your Dreadnaughts. 

Wilbur Wright 

That's so. 

Darius Green 

Did he know it? 

Leonardo da Vinci {smiling) 
Not consciously; but his idea was shared by all who saw 
his log, and as no concrete impression is forgotten, it pass- 

8 



ed gradually into human experience. You can trace the 
Dreadnaught's descent without a break from the hollowed 
log. 

John Bnll 
Aye — but where did that first man get his idea? 

Leonardo da Vinci (simply) 
The dream of moving without effort. 

Wilbur Wright 

It can't be done — not if you want to get anywhere. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Of course not: But the fantastic imagining of the impos- 
sible inspired the vision of the possible. 

learns 
I used to watch the gulls swooping over the ^gean until it 
seemed that I was a gull myself. I could feel the air under 
my wings as I beat upwards and its rush past in the long 
glide down with my pinions outstretched and set. 
Darius Green 
Gosh! That's the way I used ter watch the hawks. Till I 
was dizzy. No— that aint it. .Till I felt sorta floaty— like milk- 
weed or dandelion fluff. 

Wilbur Wright 
I know — I watched the birds, 

Icarus 
One day I found a dead gull on the rocks by the sea. I 
studied the mechanism of its wings: My father was the 
cleverest designer and metal worker in Crete, and together 
we made the wings. 

Wilbur Wright 
I though they were stuck on with wax! 



Icarus {deeply scornful) 
With wax! If you had seen my father's workshop you 
would not repeat that foolishness. Wax! The wings were a 
marvel of craft and ingenuity, — you could have learned some- 
thing from their devices of control, Mr, Wright. 
Wilbur Wright 
What was your power? 

Icarus 
It was a one-youth power, — I used my arms for the motor 
and guided by strings fastened to my fingers. 

One still morning before sunrise, a great crowd gathered 
on the seashore below a sheer wall of rock — My father and I 
stood at the top.. he adjusted the wings..! sprang from the 
cliff, .and soared! 

Wilbur Wright 
that moment! The sense of completed life! 

John Bull 
But you fell. 

Icarus {indifferent) 
O yes, I fell. Something went wrong — I saw the sea rising 
towards me — I saw the white upturned faces of the crowd — 
I saw the clouds turn from pink to gold — (to Wilbur Wright). 
Like you, I had my moment of life complete. 

Wilbur Wright 

Did no one take up the invention? 

Icarus 

After that object lesson? Hardly! They saw the crash — 
how could they know the moment was worth it? 

A poet, indeed, did sing of the aspiration of the human soul 
that can transcend the limitations of its flesh, but a priest 
replied that the gods had struck me down for presuming to 

10 



be as they. The poet was right and the priest was wrong, but 
his story stuck and was told and retold until it was believed 
and the moral of my fall has been misread as that of Lucifer. 

The pioneers are always broken, — I suppose that man who 
first hollowed a log was drowned, — what of it! (with exalta- 
tion). Oh yes, I fell — but I flew! 

Darius Green (to Icarus, with shy admiration) 

I read that yarn about you in school, but I knew it wasn't 
true. It ain't presumption to try to do the thing you conld 
do if you knowed how. You get things all straight in your 
mind and then, somehow, you can't work them out. 

I made my machine up in the hay mow, with just the Junk 
I could get, and I couldn't try it no how with the fellers 
around to laugh at me. They was going over to town for the 
Fourth of July, and I said I stay home 'count of a toothache. 
When they was gone I drug the machine up on the barn roof 
where I'd made a little platform. Then I got in, buckled the 

straps and started to turn the crank 

Wilbur Wright (excited) 

You flew! 

Darius Green 

Waal, no.. I didn't. The old machine Jest went off the 
platform with a bump, and slid down the roof like a bob sled 
— we landed ker-plunk, — on the manure pile. 
Wilbur Wright (with sympathy) 

That's what happens at flrst. 

Darius Green 

The first was the last for me. The boys guessed I was up 
to sumpin' and they came back to ketch me at it. They seen 
me go off the roof — gosh! How they laughed — I knowed I 
couldn't explain — I never tried it no more. I dreamed all 
right, but I guess I didn't have the brains. 

11 



{To Icarus). A feller wrote poetry about me, too. He made 
out I was a blame fool not to stick to my chores. 
WUbur Wright 
Too bad! Luck isn't one thing. It's a lot of things happen- 
ing right. 

Leonardo da Tinci 
The greatest single constituent of your luck, Sir, was to be 
born at the right time. You had an ingenious mind, you had 
affectionate and intelligent assistance in your work, and yours 
was the day of oil driven engines. That was your luck. 
Wilbur Wright {impressed) 
I never thought of that before! 

Leonardo da Vinci 
I knew I needed such an engine when I planned my flying 
machine . . I was experimenting with fuels — Whenever I was 
on the track of an idea full of possibilities of enduring bene- 
fit for humanity some prince would summon me to model an 
equestrian statue or paint the portrait of his mistress! 
Darius Green {with a sigh) 
Just like I had to hoe potatoes or milk the cows. 

Leonardo da Vinci 
What were my tricks of design and color compared to my 
thoughts ! 

Wilbur Wright 
I've often wondered why the authorities let your ideas get 
by. Men were imprisoned or burned in your day for less 
originality than yours. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

The authorities never troubled me for I never tried to re- 
form my contemporaries. Why should I expect them to think 
as I did, when I knew I could not think as they? Men can com- 

12 



municate their emotions, not their thoughts. I saw the people 
suffer but how could I help them? Had they been able to 
understand their situation they would not have been oppress- 
ed. They were the herd because they lacked the brains to be 
anything else. 

Uncle Sam [pro^idly) 
Democracy did not cut much ice in those days. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

You mean that it does now? No, my friend: The herd is 
still the herd. It brays louder, but it is still driven by brains 
as it always has been. 

Uncle Sam 

Did you use your brains to come it over other people? 

Leonardo da Vinci 

No: But that was because I valued knowledge rather than 
wealth. Had I desired possessions, doubtless I should have 
used my understanding to exploit the less Intelligent since 
that is the quickest and easiest way to wealth. 

Wilbur Wright 

Experiments take an awful lot of cash. I suppose you had 
to paint pictures on the side to get it. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

I did not paint much. In a practical sense, my life was a 
failure: With splendid possibilities there is nothing to show 
but a mass of tentative observations and a few faded pictures. 

Wilbur Wright 

But you were all kinds of a success as a human being, 
weren't you? 

13 



Leonardo da Vinci {impartial) 

Yes and no. 

I had great honor showed me but I was very lonely. Princes 
of the state and church treated me with deference, as the 
ruler of a realm greater than theirs; And so Indeed I was, 
for such is the Kingdom of the Mind. But I would gladly 
have been less eminent and more beloved, — less admirable 
and less aloof. 

DarinS Green {with inarticulate heartfelt admiration) 
Gosh! 

John Bull {ruffling) 
That's the trouble with all you demigod fellows! You 
breathe aether but most of us live on air, and bad air at that. 

Uncle Sam {whimsical) 
And hot. 

Wilbur Wright 

I suppose you didn't believe in anything — I mean religion. 

Leonardo da Tinci 

I believed in myself — It is a creed that takes great faith. 

Uncle Sam 

It does so. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Men seek power but they shirk responsibility. There is no 
nostrum too absurd for their credulity yet they are loth to be- 
lieve in themselves — to believe in that miracle of human po- 
tentiality which we call a soul. 

You are right about the demigods, John Bull: I saw the 
verities, indeed, but I could not make my fellows see them 
That is why I was a failure as a human being. 

14 



Darius Green 

I guess just being what you was, is mor'n doin' a heap a 
things. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

No, lad. The greatness of man is measured by his service 
to men. It was not an Olympian, but the earthborn Prame- 
theus that gave men fire. 

learns 

And to be chained on a mountain top and tortured was his 
reward! The jealousy of the Gods! 

Leonardo da Vinci 

What would you? 

Men made the Gods in their own image. 

Prometheus was not chained to a mountain, but to his lower 
self: The vulture that tore his vitals was self-knowledge— 
his release came with wisdom. 

(To John Bnll and Uncle Sam). Remember that, you two, 
whose hearts are torn as Prometheus' never was. 

John Bnll (between a groan and a prayer) 

God help us! 

Uncle Sam 

(passionately dashing his hat on the ground) . 

Damit! What's the good of talking like that! John and I 
are sweating blood to find something that works. 

We're in a hell of a hole: How are we going to get out? 
Answer that if you can. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Do you know what you really want? 

Uncle Sam 

My God! I want a man. 

15 



John Bull 

Hear! Hear! 

Leonardo da Vinci 

You mean a leader with wisdom, courage and integrity? 

Uncle Sam and John Bull {together) 

Yes. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

But at the same time he must give no offense to rival poli- 
tical factions: He must not too greatly disturb the course of 
daily life; above all he must not be too exacting in demanding 
accounts of public moneys disbursed? 

Uncle Sam {diffidently after a slight pause) 
There's no sense hoping for too much. 

Leonardo Di Vinci 

There is much sense in recognizing the substance of your 
hopes, {to John Vyv>Y\ and liicle Sam), You Augio Saxons 
have never failed to produce a man to meet your emergencies; 
and you have never failed to hinder him, letting a pack of curs 
snarl at him, striving to show themselves less mean by mak- 
ing him appear less great. 

John Bull {ttoitting Uncle Sarii ) 
That's democratic. He says the world must be made safe 
for democracy. 

Uncle Sam {hastily) 
Forget it. I only meant making the country safe for Demo- 
crats. 

Icarus 

Demos can neither lead nor construct, he can only talk. I 
lived long enough to learn that. 

16 



Darius Green 

After the Selectmen have done arguin' there's always one 
man runs the Town Meetin'. 

John Bull 
How can we find our man? 

Leonardo da Tinci 
I do not know, .with your system. 
John Bull 
How were you discovered? 

Leonardo da Vinci 
I was known to be the master of my profession. 

John Bull 
But your line was art and scientific speculation. That's no 
use for the job we're on. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

My line, as you call it, was Beauty and Truth. But I saw 

them alone. My world was torn by brawling princes. What 

have Beauty and Truth to do with the bestial madness of war? 

Uncle Sam 

Were you too proud to fight? 

Leonardo da Vinci 
I was too intelligent. 

Uncle Sam 
Couldn't you pass on the idea? 

Leonardo da Vinci 
Alas, that is the tragedy of the seers the antique world call- 
ed demigods. They show men a vision beyond men's under- 
standing. They teach the beauty of brotherly love and the 
truth of justice, but men can not be just because they are 
greedy and they can not love one another because the injus- 
tice begotten of greed, breeds hate. 

17 



John Bull {sadly) 
"Won't anything" teach 'em good sense. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

No, because man is a predatory animal and must follow the 
law of his being. To prove to him that honest work is a 
hundred times more profitable than successful war, is to 
waste your breath and weary him, since he finds more pleas- 
ure and excitement in strife and its destruction, than in cre- 
ation and its toil. 

John Bull 

If that's the way we're made what's to be done? 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Until you can evolve a race of sages and artists who are 
willing to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, you had 
better play the game of war and play it better than anyone 
else. 

Uncle Sam 

Now you're talking! More ships! 
John Bull 
Bigger guns! Improved ammunitions! 

Leonardo da Vinci {sadly) 
And more targets for it. 

Darius Green 
One winter we fellers usta fight the Indian Hill gang fer a 
snow fort every afternoon till chore-time. There didn't seem 
no way to get the Hill boys out till Jim Perkins he dipped our 
snow balls in water and let 'em freeze. Gee but they cleared 
out of the fort when we began firin' them ice-chunks. We held 
the fort till the Hills boys got to freezing gravel with their 
balls. Bob Williams he lost an eye and all the rest of us was 
scratched up or had our teeth broke. We called a truce to de- 

18 



cide on us all goin' back to snowballs, an' we said we would 
but we didn't. I dunno where we'd have stopped but for a 
thaw comin' on. 

Leonardo da Vinci 

I had ideas for battle engines, but I would not develop them. 

Wilbur Wright 

Orville and I meant our 'planes to be useful. 

Uncle Sam 

And aren't they useful? Do you think aviation would be 
what it is to-day but for it's necessity in this war? First the 
sport of the thing, then the need of it, then the business of it! 
. . . .That's right isn't it, John? With ships, learning to read, 
motors, religion, flying machines 

{The Lost Flyers of the Lafayette Squadron appear: a 
group of slim youths with wide apart eyes and worn, eager 
faces. The sky above them is dotted with flying craft. ) 

One of the Flyers: (Kniffin RockweU) 

That's where we come in. 

Uncle Sam 

My eaglets! 

Another Flyer: (Victor Chapman) 

Right, Uncle Sam! And we hope you have some new broods 
coming off. We need 'em. 

Icarus {to Darius Oreen, pointing to the Squadron's machines) 
Our dream of wings! 

Leonardo da Vinci 

And mine! 

19 



Wilbui- Wright 

And mine. 

First Flyer: (Norman Prince) 

There may be some one that can see the whole of this war 
business, — we saw only our bit, but we saw it clear: If the 
Anglo-Saxons don't run the world the Germans will. 
John Bull 
You hear that, Sam! 

Uncle Sam 
Do you, John? 

{After a moment's hesitation from each, both simultaneously put out 
their hands that meet in a long clasp.) 

John Bnll 
I have my crosses — but they mean union. 

Uncle Sam 

And I my stripes — but the stars go with them. 

John Bnll 
We will set our heroes of the air among them — constella- 
tions that will glow forever. 

First Flyer: (Norman Prince) 
Ours is the best trick in the game, but we need machines, 
we need flyers, and more machines, and more flyers — and then 
some. 

Uncle Sam 
You shall have 'em boys! Everything you need if it takes 
my last cent. What's money, anyhow! It's only fit to spend. 
Second Flyer: (Victor Chapman) 
We don't want your money. Uncle Sam. You don't suppose 
we do this for 30 per and all found, do you? 
Uncle Sam 
You make me ashamed, boys. 

20 



First Flyer: (Norman Prince) 
We're not expensive, but our equipment is, and we need a 
lot. 

John Bnll (grumbling) 
Money's nothing. What you can't get is the brains and the 
labor: Wages paid by the minute! 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Are they paid in nothing but money? 

Jolin Bnll 

How else should they be paid? 

Leonardo da Yinci 

You are asking labor to put its soul into the work of its 
hands. The things of the spirit must be paid with the spirit. 

Second Flyer: (Victor Chapman) 

That's what I meant about not doing this for 30 per. Uncle 
Sam gave us the chance of our lives and we gave our lives for 
the chance, {laughs joyously) 

Most of us didn't fit our places on earth — how could we? 
We were made for this. We were civilian duffers, but in the 
air we had a God's eye view of life. 

Leonardo da Vine! 

Dear lads, of what account is sterile knowledge and lonely 
wisdom compared to your bright death and glorious service. 
{He uncovers and hoics to them with reverence as do the others.) 

{The Spirit of the Nordic Race appears, A tall, slen- 
der, fair haired figure, v;earing a Viking helmet with towering 
wings and a dark blue cloak upon which are constellations of 
golden stars.) 



21 



Spirit of the Nordic Race 

Well-spoken! Ye men of other days and lands far apart, 
we be of one blood! Service! That is the watchword of our 
race. We laugh at life and we laugh at death, not in mockery 
but for the joy of living. Life is a game and we play it fair. 
Service and fair play, and scorn of tyranny and foul means. 
Liberty is not in government, nor freedom in words, but in 
the spirit. Democracy is only possible for a race whose 
men are kings of their own souls. 

Service and fair-play! But beware of them that betray the 
service and cheat at the game. Deeds, not words, Anglo- 
Saxons! Keep our blood pure and our lives clean and guard 
our heritage for our children's children. 

Give to the oppressed peoples their chance for happiness but 
in their own way and in their own place. Ours are the seas 
and the skies and the wide places of the earth. Hold fast to 
the things of the spirit, yet never forget they speak through 
the flesh. Cast not pearls before swine for the swine must 
be nourished and pearls will not do it. 

Enjoy to the utmost of our understanding — our work, our 
pleasures, our fellows. Service and fair play — but prove the 
stranger before we admit him to our game. Ye who have 
dreamed of wings are the symbol of our race: The actuality 
of wings will be the supremacy of our race! 

Wings! The very romance of adventure. There had been 
nothing like it since our kin went forth on daring quests in 
the golden days of Hellas! And our Paladins! And our 
Knights Errant! Our destiny is greater than these. See to 
it that the rising sun turns the flight of our airmen to a 
fiery cloud guiding our hosts toward the East. So does our 
stream return to its source. 

22 



( To John Bull and Uticlo Sam ) Get together. Our destiny 
is one. Be true to the best in ourselves: to the mystery of 
wisdom, dignity, and noble common-sense. 

The tabernacle of God is among men. Divinity is made 
manifest through flesh and humanity touches the divine. Ser- 
vice and fair-play: That is the glory of our race. 

Wings! Anyone can use them now — but the dream was 
ours! Pegasus, the Victory of Samothrace, — {to Uncle Sam) 
your eagle — all symbols of our passion for individual liberty, 
that serves the law of its freedom, justice and self-control! 
That ideal is the gift of our race to the world! 



23 



■iiiililL 

015 909 048 6 ^ 




